


So we're Inters now (FFoZ S1E9)

by J_Shute



Series: The Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia [12]
Category: Zootopia (2016), アグレッシブ烈子 | Aggressive Retsuko | Aggretsuko (Anime)
Genre: Acting Jack, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Innuendo, Inter support group, Introverted Skye, Lazy Jack, Will it work out?, Worldbuilding about inter relationships, having fun, lots of cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2020-12-28 05:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21131240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Shute/pseuds/J_Shute
Summary: Jack and Skye. Skye and Jack. They never quite imagined going out on a date, but things happened. Now, an acting hare and a mechanic vixen are going on a first date! While a bit of fun to start off with, big questions will soon surface. Do they have enough in common to keep this relationship going? Will they work it out? Fortunately, they'll be going to a place where relationship advice is in no short supply.Episode 9 of Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia (my mega crossover series). Jumping in here can be done, but at the very least reading episode 5 (Spanners and Stripes) is advised to give the set up.





	1. Chapter 1

**FFoZ S1E9**

**Chapter 1**

**.**

.

Skye was going on a date with a rabbit.

A jackrabbit, called Jack!

Driving down to where they’d agreed to meet, she remembered that she hadn’t really been expecting that to happen. After meeting him when Nick had called her over to help, she’d soon got to work, picking apart and rebuilding that giant stage of his. Bit by bit by bit…

It was certainly something different to another car, machine or ex-army vehicle, that was for sure. However, while she’d been happy to busy herself away with working out how things worked, or at least had worked before the mess up, and then fixing them, she’d also found that observing the acting hare was more interesting than she'd expect.

He was certainly an _ interesting _ character.

He’d muse out loud on what his characters might do, or mentally smash together different plot ideas to see if they fit, or literally act out parts in front of her.

She wasn’t sure if that had been him trying to impress her, or just trying to keep himself occupied. When he wasn’t occupied, he’d be sitting down and sleeping, or daydreaming, or staring off into the distance.

All very different to her, until it came to that theatre owner.

_ That meddler... _

But that wasn’t a problem anymore. One hustle later and all that was sorted, and then they’d accidentally joked themselves into a date.

So, here she was.

Driving into Sahara Square, dressed in a dusty red button up T-shirt and some grey shorts, about to date a jackrabbit called Jack.

Turning around the corner, she felt a little tremor of doubt. When they’d joked themselves into the date, she’d initially thought that she would be the one to organise everything, set it up and take him out. She could handle it all by herself, not wanting to cause him any bother or get anything wrong. Of course, he’d then said that he’d organise the date, and she remembered that it tended to be a thing the boyfriend did, at least for the first time. She guessed they could share the task going on, though she still felt a slight unease at it.

Skye shook her head, it was too late for any doubts now. She saw him off in the distance and pulled up, parking her little two seat convertible, a restored thing as old as she was, right next to him. Looking over, she paused and waited.

And waited.

“Uh, Jack?”

He’d seemed to almost be daydreaming but, on her call, Jack jolted to attention and looked at her, flashing a smile. Running forward, he hopped right over the door and her, landing in the passenger seat. “Doing good?” he asked, oddly suavely.

She smiled back. “Yup. Doing good.”

She paused as he looked at her with a critical eye, shaking his head. “Skye," he began, definitely doing the suave accent now. "By the end of this, you’ll be doing _ great _.” He flashed her a wink, before putting on his seatbelt.

She couldn’t help but feel a little charmed. “Nice,” she said, grooving in her seat a little.

“Cool.”

“Neato.”

He nodded, before turning to face the road ahead. “Onwards,” he called, pointing his finger forwards, Skye taking it as the que to fire up her engine and drive off. Threading the gears, feeling the excited pep of the engine rev up, she smiled as they were soon cruising down the road.

“Where to?”

“We have an arrangement at the Grand Palm,” he said smoothly, the news perking her up a little. She’d never been before, though she knew it was nothing short of a Zootopian cultural institution. It wasn’t just the hotel and casino, there was the second biggest performance space in the city, multiple bars and restaurants, and all sorts of conference halls that got rented out here and there. She glanced down at Jack, her curiosity piquing at what awaited them. “So, where are we going when we get there?”

“To a place, my dear, for special mammals like us.”

Well, she noted, that was ambiguous. She’d also noticed the way he’d said it, just like everything else that night, was posh and proud. Not the kind of pompousness he’d get whenever his artistic talent was critiqued, this was something else. Almost like…

“Jack?”

“Yes, my dear.”

_ Yup, it was. _ “You’re acting, aren’t you?”

“I may be taking inspiration from the greats about how I’m treating a fine vixen like yourself, certainly,” he said, before flashing a grin.

She giggled a little, about to speak but then cut off. 

“Ahem… Skye,” he said, sitting upright and crossing his arms, a slightly sterner look on his muzzle as he almost lectured her, in that slightly pompous and prideful way that shouldn’t really be cute.

But totally was.

“I hope you understand that I didn’t intend this as a parody.”

“Is it my fault if I find you funny?” she asked.

“I’m not being funny, Skye,” he said, overly formally in a way that made her almost but not quite sure he was being. She giggled some more, before he spoke again. “Would you like me to try something else?” he asked, his voice a mix of pride and sass.

In a way, she was conflicted about how to answer that. She liked the way he acted things out; the enjoyment he obviously got out of it reminded her of the joy she took from her own work. But, then again… If this were to last or anything, she’d better get to know the real him. After all, she had to make sure the foundations of this thing were all set up and ready before trying to build on top of it. “Maybe,” she said, “you can just be you.”

This time his pridefulness went right up to eleven. “Skye. I _ am _ just me,” he pointed out, closing his eyes, lifting up his head and gesturing to himself.

“Except when you’re ‘acting’, like that.”

And then he seemingly dropped the act, slumping his shoulders and head, slouching a bit and letting his face droop into an innocent expression. “But it’s what I do,” he defended in his regular voice, while giving an exaggerated, paws out in the open, shrug.

“Well, you don’t do it all the time,” she pointed out. “Maybe I want to meet the ‘you’ that’s around when acting and all that stuff is off the table. You know… Casual Jack?”

He thought for a few seconds before shrugging it off. “Meh, cool then,” he replied, slouching down back into his seat, his feet going right up onto the dashboard. “I’ll do that.”

“Nice,” she said, smiling as she drove on. “I mean, it’s fun when you do those things.” They were, it was all part of the character she’d met, the one that had piqued her interest. It was a fun quirk, and it was nice to see a mammal that took passion in what he did, instead of just moping about complaining about how ‘unfair’ things were… “But I think the idea of tonight is to get to know what each other’s really like, isn’t it? That’s sort of what dates are for, so it’s what we’ll do. Right?”

…

“I guess...”

She glanced down at him, seeing him lazily looking up at the rear-view mirror, or rather the dreamcatcher hanging from it.

“You guess?”

His eyes flickered over to her for a second, before he shook himself out of his headspace. He smiled at her, and spoke suavely again. “Well, having fun is certainly is another important intention when dating.”

"Well," Skye said. "Let's have some!"

.

.

It wasn’t that long before she’d arrived at the Palm Hotel parking lot, the pair getting out and looking up at it. For the most visible landmark in the city, it had an almost alien presence for many, despite being far more than a mere hotel, so she was excited to finally be going in. Jack wandered along, leading the way, as she followed him to the lobby.

Walking in, the vixen took a moment to take in the scope of the lobby’s size and decoration, palm bark like details with backlighting built into all the arches and vaults, before following Jack further in. The striped jackrabbit led her on to the front desk, where a receptionist took one glance at them before speaking. “I guess you’re here for OWO?” she asked, Skye pausing, not knowing what that stood for

“I’m guessing my date’s prettiness tipped you off,” he cooly replied, going all sauve again while giving a coy glance up at her. His eyes hit hers, and she felt a little warm from the attention, a smile growing on her muzzle. Any reply though was cut off as she noted the look the receptionist was giving her, a tired one, laced with a weary sympathy or pity. It was saying, ‘_ You poor thing, is this really what you’ve settled for?’ _ It broke off whatever happy thing Skye was feeling right then, replacing it with a slap of indignation. She was a grown vixen dammit, and she was hanging out with Jack because she wanted to!

“Maybe it’s just…” she began, before pausing, blinking as she tried to finish the sentence but stumbled.

“-Her date is good enough to send her speechless,” Jack filled in, as he grabbed the tickets and left the booth. Skye followed him on once more, relaxing a bit and smiling again. She was fairly solitary so she didn't get called pretty often, especially not in a genuinely romantic way like that, and she wouldn’t have thought it would have much of an effect on her.

Yet...

Yet…

It did.

She pondered it and the rest of her draw to him, her tail sweeping up into her paws so she could fidget with the end a little as she thought. There was the fun that came from hanging out with him while she worked, and the anti-meddler solidarity, but she had to admit that he did look a little handsome, and him calling her pretty for the first time did feel nice. So maybe, just maybe, she might have a little crush on him?

Nothing wrong with that, right?

“You know,” she said, going up to him. “You didn’t have to go all acting there…”

“But the opportunity was perfect,” he complained, paws up.

“Oh, I’m not complaining,” she replied with a smirk. “But I do hope the prettiness thing wasn’t acting too.”

He looked at her and smiled. “You can act and tell the truth at the same time, Skye,” he haughtily lectured, making her smile some more.

“And I can’t act,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “So, you know I mean it when I say you’re fun, cute and handsome.”

He blinked a few times. “You’re not supposed to call a bunny cute, Skye,” he said, in his slightly full of himself manner again. Which only made him even cuter, especially as he looked up at her and gave her a secret little smile. ‘_ But you can… _’ it almost seemed to say to her.

“Then you’re just fun and handsome,” she said.

He shrugged, as if she’d said it was a nice day, or that there was an interestingly shaped cloud nearby. “Cool.” And off he went, Skye following him.

She guessed the ‘real’ Jack was fairly nonchalant about a lot of things. Well, she was hoping to find out more about him, and there was something! She wordlessly followed him on as he led her to one of the doors, showing off the sign by it.

.

_ ‘Outsiders with Outsiders: Zootopia chapter.’ _

_ . _

“Outsiders with…” she read off, before cutting off, blinking a few times as she was hit with a realisation. “This is an Inter Support Group.”

“We’re inters,” he said, shrugging. “Found out about this last night. Seemed obvious…”

Slowly nodding, Skye tried to hide her sense of disappointment. It wasn’t like she needed ‘support’ or anything, and this kind of thing sounded like the opposite of what she’d be interested in. She’d been hoping that this night would have been something fun or exciting together, not one of these kinds of get togethers.

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her muzzle. Grrrr… _ This _was why she should have planned today. It was probably going to be mammal after mammal talking about this and that, on how things were hard on them because they were inters, or asking about how she and Jack had met. Questions and chatter and moping about and all this talking and meeting and greeting and bumping into stranger after stranger…

It _ really _ wasn’t her idea of a good time. She stepped back a bit, maybe wondering if she could back out now, before shaking her head. She could try and endure this. After all, it was her fault for deferring the organising onto Jack.

Anyway, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?

“Right,” she muttered, as she went up with Jack and entered. She was almost immediately hit by a wave of smells, noise and colours, a smile growing on her face again. Alongside a bustling bar and food area, the exhibition area in front of her was filled out with all sorts of games and booths and other things. Mammals, walking together in pairs both fairly similar and crazily different, filtered between one and another, all of them appearing to have lots of fun. Her ears rising, Skye relaxed; it was most definitely not as bad as she feared. This was much more to her liking and so she and Jack walked off, ready to have some fun.

…

“Hey Skye…”

She ignored him, focussing on the game in front of her. There were dozens of free arcade games, and they were racing on a motorbike one, clinging onto the plastic bikes and watching the screen speed past in front of them. A biker already, Skye’s eyes were laser focussed ahead, her body tense and poised while her ears were folded back with a predatory edge to them, the swift fox making sure to dominate all others competing. Jack had already fallen so far behind that she thought he’d given up, so why was he…

“_ Raindrops keep falling on my head… _”

Glancing to her side, she blinked as she saw him sitting up on his bike as if he was taking a lazy cycle. He was even moving his feet as if pedalling! He gave her an innocent look, and then carried on singing.

“_ But that doesn’t mean my eyes will soon be turning red. Just like…” _

He was cut off as Skye screamed, her eyes widening as she saw herself about to drive straight into a pit of lava. Brakes on, pulling and leaning hard to the left, she got back on track, but not before letting her main competitor come right up next to her. Slamming him to the side, cutting the corners, her tongue was stuck out in concentration as she diced and duelled all the way to the finish line, narrowly grabbing the first place position. “Yes!!!! Still won!”

There was a tired panting from her side, and looking over she saw Jack fanning himself with his paw, his face etched with both exhaustion and relief. He nodded, before a choked smile grew on his muzzle. “Good. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.”

Skye’s head cocked with confusion, before she rolled her eyes and glanced at his screen, and his dead last position. “Well one of us still is.”

In a flash his grizzled face was back to normal, and he leant forwards, balancing his body in a plank on the seat while carrying on steering.

“Are you even trying to catch up?”

He sat up again, before lying on his back, his feet operating the handlebars.

“Are you even trying to cross the line?”

“Are you even trying to have fun, Skye?” he asked teasingly, waving his palms open to ask her. He then flipped himself around, sitting backwards and steering the bike with his shoulders.

“I…” she pondered, before trailing off. Rolling her eyes, she leant down and patted him on the head. “Why would I need to when your silliness is doing that for me?”

Turning around again, he leant on the handlebars with his ears draped over his face, even covering one of his eyes. “I’m worried that you didn’t get any of that.”

“Any of what?”

There was a pause from Jack. “Oh dear…”

“What!?” Skye asked defensively, before pausing as she looked at his screen. “Also, that’s the third time you’ve driven into lava.”

“What’s lost is lost,” he replied, slipping off the bike and standing next to her. “I thought I’d just humour you a bit.”

“You gave me a bit of a thrill at the end, that’s for certain,” she said, as he began patting the front of his bike.

“Get on here,” he egged on.

“Where?”

“The front of the bike. In front of the handlebars!”

Still a bit unsure, Skye did so, balancing there as he began lazily driving on, this time avoiding the lava.

Though he was singing again.

“_ Raindrops keep falling on my head… _”

.

.

Looking up on her phone, she watched the clip from _ Bull Cassidy and the Sundance Kit _ play out, smiling as she got Jack’s little tribute. He’d given up playing the game when he dropped well behind, and given the choice of just lazing around or having a bit of acting based fun, he’d chosen the latter.

Still, it didn’t help that she hadn’t got his reference.

“Hey, Skye? What’s your favourite film?”

She looked over at him, putting her phone away, before thinking. “I’m not sure.”

“Well what are ones you like?” he began, before letting his acting side through, evidently back into his area of interest. “Which make you laugh the loudest laugh? Cry the most heartfelt cry? Move you and enlighten you while making your heart beat and your blood pump hot and frantic, as if you were a pred or prey in the savage ages? Which hold a beauty almost as great as the one you see every day in the mirror?”

She choked out a laugh as her ears went warm, stepping back a bit and glancing away, though Jack most certainly saw her tail wag a few times before it went up into her paws for a little pet. Blinking, pausing, thinking, silent for a little bit, words hung on the edge of her tongue… “I’m not sure,” she said, “I’m not really a film buff. Or a theatre one I’m afraid. Buuuttt…. I guess I’d say my favourite film series would be either _ Star Paws _ or _ Mad Max: Furry Road _.”

“Well I see where the last one comes from,” he replied.

She laughed. “What about your favourites?”

“Hmmm… For pure storytelling, I’d say _ The Clawshank Redemption _ . For admiration for the art of the cinema, I’d say _ Zoofellas _ . For getting my heart beating and pumping, I’d also say _ Mad Max _.”

“I’ll have to watch the first two then,” she said with a shrug, not noticing Jack’s eyes go wide with shock.

“Skye!” he gasped, almost gawking. “Where have you been?”

She shrugged. “Working. Building. Repairing…”

He rolled his eyes. “Wait… Why am I complaining? Film night excuse!” He then carried on talking about all the things they might see in the future as Skye walked beside him.

“I guess so,” she agreed. She knew nothing about film or films, while he talked on and on. He did settle down after a bit and they walked on in silence, Skye unable to stop a little seed of doubt start to germinate in her. Both of them had their fields that they were dedicated to, but neither knew anything about the other’s… Would this work out? It might not…

The lustre of the evening faded somewhat as they carried on walking. They were looking for a new booth to go to, and she looked and viewed at the various ones, not sure which was best. Decisions, decisions… She looked down, spotting Jack next to her, slumping down slightly, looking tired.

“Any ideas?” she asked.

He blinked a few times, before jolting to attention. “Well we start you on _ Clawshank _ obviously…”

“About where we go next?”

“Haven’t you made a decision?”

“I can’t decide. So, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“What were you even thinking about back then?”

He shrugged. “Stuff.”

“Maybe you could help me decide where we go next?”

He shrugged, closed his eyes, and pointed in a random direction. “There.”

Skye nodded, and walked over to the booth with him. It was home to an elephant, who was offering up caricature pictures, drawing them with big felt tip pens held in his trunk. Looking at the pair, he pushed them on, talking about poses they could do. Little bits of back and forth fired between the bunny and fox, before Jack ended up on her lap, her muzzle resting between his ears and on top of his head.

“Oh, that’s a classic,” the artist said, as he began drawing.

This was okay. Jack seemed to relax completely into her, content not to be walking anymore, while to her the feeling of a bunny on her lap…

Well, it was almost comforting. Her nose so close, she smelled his scent and while there was a good deal of dirt and must on it, there was an odd comfort in what was below. More than that, even… It was hard to describe, but looking at him, feeling him on her, it only increased. She wanted him closer. It calmed her down. It made her feel warm and contented, blocking out the noise from the rest of the conference and emptying her head a little, as if she was having some ‘me’ time… Yet it was more than that.

He moved slightly and, feeling him do that, she moved one of her paws onto his shoulder, the knuckles brushing against his fur.

That felt good.

She let it move again, and he seemed to move into it, so she began rubbing him with them. Then, not really thinking, her paw came up and stroked his side and up his ear.

“_ Eso es bueno _,” he sighed contently, as he felt Skye stroking him.

“You speak spanish?” she asked curiously.

“_ Mi especie vino de Mexgato _ ,” he replied, his eyelids fluttering a little as one of her claws began scritching under his chin. “ _ Puedo hablar esto mas la lengua tradicional de mi especie. _”

“Right, uh…” she said softly, thinking. “_ Donde estas? _”

He chuckled a little, before crossing his paws. “Skye, where I am right now is in your lap.”

“Oh, uh…”

“But _ senorita _,” he said, hammy up his vestigial accent to the nth degree. “What I was saying was that my species came from Mexicat, and I speak the language, plus the more traditional native tongue my species often does.”

“That’s neat,” she complemented, as her thumb pad began moving up to the base of his ear. Rotating around slowly, it dug in to the sensitive area, massaging it and sending a wave of pleasure rippling through him. His right foot began hammering down rapidly, tragically breaking off the petting.

Jack couldn’t help but chuckle. “Can you carry on? I was kind of enjoying that.”

Behind him, Skye’s ears folded back from embarrassment, though she shook it off. “I kind of do too…” she said, before closing her eyes as a flash of guilt hit her. “Sorry, I should have asked first.”

“No worries,” he swooned.

“Right,” she began, as she felt him. She wanted to carry on, she suddenly wanted to pull him in and hug him and just coo over him, and this was coming out of nowhere and it was logically dumb but she didn’t care, instead she carried on the scritching and petting. “I started rubbing you, and it felt good, I just started doing a little more and a little more and…”

“No worries,” he said again, before moaning a little as her thumb pad hit that spot again. “This is the life…”

“Thanks,” she replied, thinking a little before carrying on speaking. “Ever seen a baby that you just want to play with, that’s so cute you just want to eat it all up?”

Clearing his throat a little, Jack looked behind him and, a hint of sternness in his voice, spoke out. “This better end with you saying I’m that adorable, Skye.”

“I thought I wasn’t allowed to call you that,” she teased.

“That’s with cute.”

She chuckled a little. “I… I’m just getting that feeling with you. It’s dumb, and it’s silly, but it’s true. I think I enjoy petting you.”

“About time you came out with the truth,” he playfully said. “And in a rhyme, that gives you a boost.”

Chuckling some more, Skye carried on holding him, as if he were some kind of lap bunny. Jack was all too happy to comply. Maybe this wasn’t exactly something they had in common, but as things they could enjoy doing together went, he certainly wasn’t complaining.

…

“I personally think that the bigger the ears, the better!”

Skye rolled her eyes at his boasting. The finished caricature had given Jack a pair of ears big enough to fly with, to the point where she strongly believed that they’d either drag on the ground behind him or raise his centre of gravity above his head depending on their position. Naturally, her comments and such had him going all prideful about his big, long and striped up acoustic appendages. “Sure, sure,” she replied, before looking over at the artwork again. She hadn’t escaped the pen either, her muzzle being shown glomping down on the crown of his head, with both paws wrapped around him. In the background there was even a little blur, showing her rapidly wagging tail.

Spot check, it still was now.

.

A seed of doubt crept into her mind though.

Wasn’t it a bit shallow just to have him because she enjoyed hugging and stroking him? Then again, he did make her laugh a lot, but that wasn’t much more, was it? How much did they see eye to eye on things, or what else could they bond on other than the usual hatred of meddlers. Pausing, thinking, Skye was about to speak when she noticed a small area off to her right. A group of mammals were sitting down in front of a speaking podium, with a little sign raised above it.

‘_ Thinkers about Inters. Fun facts about us. _

_ Presented by ZPD Precinct 11’s Chief Ramic. _’

“How about we try over there,” she pondered out loud, pointing at a cluster of free seats. Jack looked over and nodded.

“Over… -Oh, right,” he said absently. “Okay.”

So, off they went, about to find out what all this was about.

.

.

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

.

.

Together, Jack and Skye settled down at the little conference, the swift fox looking over at the others in attendance. She was drawn the most to a coyote with a red dye mask around his eyes and, hanging off his left ear, a long, red, threaded-string earing that ended in a pair of red feathers. He was a tribe member for certain, and a slight curiosity filled Skye. Maybe she could talk to him afterwards, just for a little bit.

Next to him was a rather content looking skunkette, with a slick head of short white hair. It was a fairly common feature among female skunks, Skye having seen at least one other skunkette with white hair, albeit straight and long, hanging down to her chin level.

Alongside those two were a number of other interspecies pairs. There were some with similar species to each other, such as a goat and a mouflon or a nine banded armadillo paired with a three banded one, but there were also a disproportionate number of more drastically different pairings as well. There was a white wolf who just so happened to glance over at her and Jack and point them out, his tail going into a wagging fit, who sat next to what at first seemed like another canine. However, looking closer at the tan female, Skye noticed a set of distinct stripes on the back of her legs and down her brushless tail, marking her out as a thylacine. The tasmanian tiger and her wolf mate might look similar, but they were about as far apart as one could get without her laying eggs.

A base that the echidna with all his spines dyed red, and the female bat next to him, covered pretty decisively.

That one may have taken the top prize, but there was still stiff competition.

The next-strangest pairing either had to be a white mouse with a white horse mare, or the jaguar sitting next to a giraffe. Other than that, there was a grey fox with a bobcat, a silver fox with a flying fox, a black mountain lion with a white-tailed deer doe, an elephant with a female otter, a bespectacled male brown bear with an orange furred red fox todd (with plastic cups on his ears), a hyena with a red panda, a lion with a hyeness, another grey fox who was with a fennec vixen, a giant panda with an anteater and, last but not least, a wolf with a sheep.

The crowd slowly quietened down, before a well-built kangaroo boomer hopped out, taking up the front stage. Beating the microphone a few times, he smiled and spoke up. “Hello, hello. Welcome everyone to our fluffy little presentation. Before I introduce myself, let me say how happy it is to see so many funky and cute pairings going on. And apologise to any bunnies here who might be offended by that term.” Skye noticed a few looks turn Jack’s way, but he either didn’t notice or wasn’t bothered by it, letting a silence fill the room for a second or two before the kangaroo carried on. “Now, before I introduce myself, I’m pretty sure that some of you might know who I am,” he said, before looking over to one side of the room. The thylacine, the wolf, the mountain lion, the deer, the silver fox and the flying fox all put their paws up. “Naturally it’s the cops, the assistant district attorney, and their marvellous mates who did it! I’m Chief Ramic, of the Outback Island Precinct, and a long-time supporter of inter rights.” There was a pause and a smile. “Looking at all of this cute lot, apologies to any bunnies here, who wouldn’t be? Am I right?”

There was a light chuckle from the crowd, and Skye looked down at Jack. “You could say you don’t mind,” she pointed out.

He looked up at her and shrugged. “Or he can keep saying sorry.”

Ramic continued. “Regardless, my date couldn’t make it tonight to be with me, so I hope you don’t get tired of my voice.”

“I for one think we’ll never tire of it,” the coyote said. Murmurs of agreement began to flow from the crowd.

The kangaroo smiled, though he shook his head a bit. “Well… Maybe you won’t. In any case, we have a few things to get through. But first here’s some quick facts about OWO for any newcomers in the audience; we were founded in areas that still prohibited interspecies marriage or, in some regions, interspecies relationships in general. These areas tended to use the term ‘Outsiders’, hence the name of our organization. Even today areas like these do exist, and OWO continues to help out, while also supporting our friends in the LGBT+ community, who suffered much lower acceptance than we did.” He paused to give a nod to the bear and fox in the crowd, the latter now waving his arms like crazy. “But what about our role here in Zootopia? Well, while we won adoption equality decades ago, we still like to help out those who wish to have adorable little children, so we’re the ones to come to if you ever need help going through adoption paperwork, or finding a surrogate or donor. We also continued to support the Honeywell Genetic Counselling Centre, who assist with research into borderline viable hybrids.” Skye couldn’t help but notice the ears of the fennec vixen droop down sharply, her mate holding her paw, though she stayed quiet.

“-There’s also counselling we provide, to those who come out as inter. Just because it’s a lot more common than coming out as gay doesn’t mean that some mammals don’t have issues with it. There’s also situations where mammals are disowned by friends and family, and we aim to provide the best support we can in such cases.”

Skye felt a sad twinge at that, second paw pain coming to her.

“-We’ve also helped provide counseling to families at large as well, helping them accept their inter members for who they are,” Ramic continued, before looking over to the lion-hyena pair.

The lion nodded and stood up. “I was in a bit of a rough patch with my family when I met my mate, and her being a hyena really didn’t help, given some traumatic things that happened to my father in his childhood and a lot of old… -speciesism, to say it bluntly. But OWO helped me bring up the courage to reconnect and helped them change. Today, they accept both Jazzy and me with open paws.”

He was met with a round of applause, sitting back down again. “But the serious stuff isn’t all we do,” the kangaroo said, looking around, a smile growing on his muzzle. “We happen to support fun get togethers like this for a start, happy events where you can have fun and be with other mammals who might be going through the same thing as you. Speaking of which, anyone got any fun inter-errors to help break the ice?”

“Oooh! I do! I do!” the white wolf said, jumping up and down, paw in the air.

“‘Course you do, Eliot,” Ramic said, just as his mate slapped both her paws into her face.

“Not ‘_ Sipa _ ’, not ‘ _ Sipa _ ’, please not ‘ _ Sipa _’,” she muttered to herself, the white wolf carrying on, blissfully ignorant.

“Well,” he began, wagging his tail slightly. “I once bet among a group of friends that I could bare my teeth the most, and that everyone would buy the winner a drink. -And then my little Pumpkin showed us all, won, got very drunk, and I had to carry her home!”

The crowd chuckled a little, the thylacine sighing with relief before standing up. She opened her jaw right up to and then beyond a right angle, a gleeful Eliot showing it off. Another, louder, round of applause came.

Then up came the black mountain lion, pausing as he checked with his mate before speaking up. “I’ve been in a long relationship with Jeanette here, and we’ve had the usual fun. However, in our first year, I didn’t know she shed her antlers in the winter. Let’s just say that, during one romantic evening, I’d been using them as a good grip when next thing you know I was panicking thinking I’d broken her.”

A louder round of applause came up, along with the deer doe. “He neglects to mention that he was _ running _around, panicking, at that. Fortunately, it could have been worse. One advantage of dating a feline over a canine is that I’m not dragged along in that. Quite literally.”

This one brought a whole round of snickers and laughter, even a loud ‘NARF’ from the mouse, along with claps and applause. Jack, relaxing back in his seat, snickered a little.

Skye tried not to laugh.

She really tried.

She laughed. “Seriously… Knot jokes?”

“The highest and lowest form of humour…” he said innocently, before pausing. “Hmmm, maybe I could fit one in between…”

He trailed off, just as it was the echidna’s turn. “Before being with Rouge here, I was with a wallaby, and picked up a few things I tried to carry along. I spent too long looking for my bat’s pouch entrance.”

“-Oh I’m so sorry for you,” the white wolf said, speaking up. “I can’t imagine my love life without snout in pouch actio…”

He was cut off by a slap from his thyalice mate as the silver fox, his flying fox mate draped over his head, spoke. “The first time I flew back to my parents in Poland with Zoe we were shattered from the jet lag, so we got home and went straight to bed.”

“Even better,” the fruit bat chirped, “his old room had a ceiling fan which I could roost from, so we didn’t bother unpacking the portable hanger.”

“The downside was when my mother came in the next morning, flicked on the lightswitch, and accidentally the fan switch.”

There was a round of laughs and clapping, while the flying fox looked down at him with a cheeky look. “I don’t know what they’re laughing about. BEST WAKEUP EVER!!!”

The silver fox nodded. “If you were imagining her hitting the wall, forget it. Imagine my mother doing it instead, she fainted.”

Another jovial round of applause came before the elephant stood up. “When her old boyfriend tried to crash our wedding, my lovely Sandra used my wedding ring as an offensive weapon against him.” He slipped the band off with his trunk, his otter wife holding it with both paws and spinning it around as a demonstration.

Finishing his clapping, the coyote stood up. “One time, naturally when she had no clothes in the way, I found that if I tickled Roxxie in _ just _ the wrong place it sent a little twitch through her scent glands.”

A round of laughter went off as the skunkette stood up. “I found out just how much a mate with a sensitive nose can moan about that.”

More laughter, along with some claps, and Ramic took over again. “There, there, the cute little hijinks we get up to in the name of love. Now, it’s interesting to note that we do have a diverse range of pairings here. We have a few similar pairings, with our armadillo friends for instance, and these tend to make up the majority of inter pairings. Now, it’s estimated that half of all mammals meet the minimum criteria of being an inter, that’s having an attraction to a mammal of a different species. This tends to occur when the relationship between scent and attraction is broken, with scent being a key requirement for many mammals to feel an attraction. Remove that, though, and visual attraction comes far more into play. Scent and sight will still often preference mammals of the same species, but, without the scent red-line element, relationships with similar mammals becomes much more common. Ten-percent or so of Zootopians in relationships are in inter relationships, and eighty percent of those are ‘similar species’ ones. Of course, these tend to be fairly well accepted ones, which can often produce hybrids, often viable ones at that. Any wolves here likely have some coyote in them, and vice-versa, and…” he began, looking over at Skye, her eyes widening a little as his gaze came on here. “-any swift foxes likely have some kit fox in them.”

There were general murmurs of agreement, as Ramic’s smile grew. “Most canids will then still go for canids, most felines for felines, lagomorphs for lagomorphs and so on. But a few special mammals might have no species preference, or a special one for some lucky species. I’m so happy to see so many of you here tonight!” Another round of clapping came, before the kangaroo spared a glance at both her and Jack and the wolf and sheep pair. “There is one, other, interesting quirk that often drives inter relationships. In particular, pred-prey ones. Now, anyone here ever seen a cute little baby, and you say you could just eat them all up?”

Murmurs of agreement were thrown around.

“Well, it’s because a lot of the brain circuitry that controls what you want to eat is very close to that which tells us that something is cute! So when you say that, it’s sort of because you do want to eat them up! In any case, predators evolved out of that urge eons ago, but the base circuitry still survives, it does in all of us. And, when many preds see their traditional prey, it still fires! Only this time, the hunt and kill signal is a cuddle and snuggle signal! Something that I think is the cutest thing that evolution ever did to us, don’t you agree?”

Everyone chuckled, agreeing, bar one mammal.

Skye.

As Ramic went on about how such pred-prey relationships were far more common as compared to other ‘wide-field’ relationships as a result, she was looking at Jack and silently nudging herself away. She looked at him, feeling that very same little urge being talked about, and buried it deep down, looking away from him. Was that what her attraction to him, the main thing behind this entire potential relationship, was?

An old hunting instinct?

It didn’t sit right with her, not at all.

She closed her eyes, pulled her tail up so she could stroke it for comfort, and took a deep breath in, guessing that this whole thing was just a little bit of fun but that there wasn’t really anything good or firm for anything to be built on. After all, once the snuggling urges she was feeling were outed for the faulty things they were and, rightfully, disqualified, what really was there between them? They could be good friends, but she guessed that being lovers wouldn’t work.

So, she resigned herself, watching as the kangaroo finished his speech and mammals began to get up and talk to each other. This was turning out like she feared, lots of strangers chatting to each other, and she likely having to bounce between them, trying and failing to strike up a conversation, getting bored, before she could finally filter out discreetly. Go home, have some sweet potato fries with blue cheese sauce as it was too late for coffee and a little ration of dark chocolate, before settling down to some music or TV and recharging herself.

Looking around, she paused as she saw the coyote from earlier and decided to go over and have a little talk with him, given that it would be more than just keeping up appearances.

She was cut off though as Chief Ramic hopped up to her and Jack, looking down at them. “Hey there! Nice to meet you, I’m pretty sure you’re new here. Sorry about the ‘cute’ moments.”

Jack shrugged. “Doesn’t bug me.”

“Excellent. Then you don’t mind me saying how cute you two are! I love bunny-fox pairs, ever since I first laid my eyes on Hopps and Wilde.”

“Cool,” Jack said.

“-They’re together!?” Skye exclaimed, not seeing that one coming.

Ramic looked at her and smirked. “We can all hope.” He then gave her a wink.

“Well, I think Judy Hopps is staying over at his place tonight,” Jack said. “I’m an old friend of hers. In fact, it was she who introduced me to Nick, who then introduced me to Skye here.”

“Aaaw, spreading the love,” Ramic replied, before giving Jack a wink. “Well, best of luck, I’ve got other perfect pairings to meet up with, a potential associate of an evil scientist to keep an eye on… -And I keep on hearing someone mention ‘Crimes’, so I better check that out. See you soon…. Or at the wedding…. -Or both….”

His voice trailed off as he bounced into the crowd, the pair left in an awkward silence. Looking at each other, Jack waggled his eyebrows up and down a few times before speaking. “He’s a fair cop.”

Despite her recent concerns, and slight discomfort at the grilling, Skye couldn’t help but burst out laughing. As she recovered, though, she looked around, noticing the coyote was gone. In his place was the jaguar (alongside his giraffe mate), who was busy talking to the panda and anteater about having to recently find a new employer. Apparently, said new boss currently had him pulling out old plans in order to help workers repair ‘goose damage’ to a bunch of his past projects. They were all locked in their conversation, and to Skye it felt far too rude to butt in. “Jack,” she said, deciding that she didn’t fancy hanging about here anymore. “How about we find a…”

“-Uh, excuse me?”

She was cut off by another voice, and then another.

“Yes, sorry, excuse us…”

Looking towards them, she saw the hyena from earlier making his way through the crowd. In front of him, his red panda slipped through and looked at them both. “Were you talking about Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps?”

“We happen to be friends,” Jack said, the red panda smiling back in response.

“One of my colleagues at work worked with him on an undercover mission!”

“Yeah,” the hyena added. “We then went and bust a criminal too. And long story short, now we’re dating!”

“Well Nick and Judy introduced Skye and I, this is our first date.”

“Ours too!” the red panda chirped, before pausing. “You know, I’m a bit hungry. Maybe we could go and talk over some food?”

Jack nodded, before looking up at Skye. “Yea or nay? Incidentally, I’m for ‘yay’.”

Skye couldn’t help but agree, the idea of sitting down with just a few mammals and having some nice food and drink sounding blissful compared to the hubbub currently around them. She smiled, looking at the other three, and giving her lips an exaggerated lick. “Sounds extra tasty!”

A loud rumble of the hyena’s stomach signalled his agreement, and he chuckled a few times from it as they head off together.

“I’m Jack, by the way…”

“-And I’m Skye.”

The hyena smiled and gestured down. “This here is Retsuko, and I’m Haida. Nice to meet you!”

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I had some fun including some easter eggs, Zoosona’s and OC pairs (mine and others) in the meet up. I even have a list… -Which I’ll publish next week, so you guys can have a go guessing them in the comments.
> 
> In other news, I’ll be dropping a short little Halloween one-shot in the drabbles collection, early on the spooky day. Cya then.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

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**AN: As promised, the pairings list from last time.**

**The coyote and skunk: (Knoton’s) Ake’cheta and Roxxie.**

**The white wolf and thylacine: (Koraru-san’s) Eliot and Chloe Fanghanel.**

**The echidna and bat: (from Sonic) Knuckles and Rouge.**

**The mouse and horse: (from Animaniacs/ Pinky and the Brain) Pinky and Phar Fignewton (Yes, she still resents her parents a little for that one).**

**The jaguar and giraffe: (HarryLime03’s) Desmond and Molly.**

**Grey fox and a bobcat: (Sapper Joe’s and Chris the bobcat’s) Sam and Kristy.**

**The silver fox and flying fox: (Crewefox’s) Aleks Rojek and Zoe Nightfall. **

**The black mountain lion and the deer doe: (Ubernoner’s) Jean-Pierre DuPrey and Jeannette Deaux.**

**The male bear and red fox todd: (From Night in the woods) Angus and Gregg.**

**The lion and hyena: (For the Lion guard, (but here because of Crewefox’s TAS series)): Kion and Jasiri.**

**The gray fox and fennec: (Eng050599’s) Clawson’s.**

**The panda and anteater: (My) Melony Bao-hu and Grisha ‘Grima’ Huvertung.**

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Not long after their first meeting, the two pred-prey couples reached a bar area at the convention and settled down in a little corner. Jack and Skye sat down on some chairs on one side, while Haida sat on a mat on the floor given his much larger frame. Retsuko sat on his lap as he tried to work out what kind of expression was on Jack’s muzzle.

He had a little smug smile, but quite why she didn’t know.

“Uh…” Haida said, pausing as he noticed it too, before glancing over his shoulder. “Is there something funny behind me?” he asked. Seeing nothing he turned back, a grumpy look growing on his muzzle as he saw Jack’s grin widen just a little. “Hey, I don’t think there’s anything funny going on with me right now…”

…

“-Is there?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “You two just reminded me of a little thing Skye was doing earlier.”

Sitting next to him, munching on a sweet potato fry, the vixen’s eyes widened as he said that.

“-when I was sitting on her lap, and…”

Swallowing her food down, she turned to him urgently. “Jack, I don’t think…”

“She began petting me.”

“Aaaawwww,” Retsuko cooed, chuckling. “That sounds cute.”

“It looked cute too,” Jack replied, bringing out the drawing that had been done of them. Skye’s ears peeled back, as she let her bottom lip slide back so she could bite it ever so slightly. Thankfully her tail was close at paw too.

Retsuko couldn’t help but look at the picture and chuckle, while Haida had a big cheesy grin on his face. “Heh… That does look cute.”

“Haida, can you pet me?”

“That looks really… -HUH?!” The hyena blinked a few times, as what his date had said caught up to him. Coming out of the blue, slapping him like that, it should have been a golden ticket to let him do what he wanted to do to her. He’d wanted nothing better than to hug and snuggle her and just give her care and attention, yet his mind was seemingly filled with a static fizzle. The only coherent thought that came in his mind was that at least Fenneko wasn’t here to rub it all in.

That, and him registering the sad sigh from the red panda in his lap. Looking down, seeing her disappointed at the lack of a reply, he immediately pushed forwards, stroking her head a little. There was a little jitter, then a chuckle, and then she settled back into him as he began reflexively paying her attention. Given his size, it was often just a thumb and forefinger that did the work, petting her left paw or circling on her scalp, the odd ear getting a fidget.

“Hai-Haida,” she sighed contently, settling back even further as he boyfriend smiled. “This is nice…”

“Yup,” Jack agreed, as he slipped onto Skye’s lap, settled down and waited.

And waited.

“Skye,” Haida said, finding the situation amusing. “I think your boyfriend wants your attention.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t think…”

“Oh, sorry,” he agreed, before looking down at the hare. “Jack, I think your girlfriend wants your attention. That is kind of the way it usual goes.”

Looking up at Haida, his nose twitched a few times as he reluctantly sat up, his arms still crossed. “Fine, I’ll,” he began to groan, before stopping as he thought it through. “Wait, I’m the small one here. That’s not gonna work.”

“He has a point,” Retsuko agreed, looking up. “Imagine if you tried to sit in my lap!”

Haida nodded in agreement, before his eyes widened slightly, a blank look on his face. “Retsuko, that was not an image I needed there,” he said starkly, before relaxing somewhat. “Besides, I like being the one treating you. Makes me feel good, and strong, like a real boyfriend!” The red panda giggled some more, her boyfriend pausing his affection session in response. “Hey, if you think me being a real boyfriend’s funny, you don’t get the perks of being a real girlfriend either.”

Looking up at him from his lap, she frowned a little, putting her paw on his shoulder. “Sorry there.”

“Thank you,” he replied, before tickling under her chin a little. From Skye’s lap, Jack, his musings coming to an end, gave her a little tap, asking for attention but only getting a few weak pats on the head back.

The jackrabbit frowned. “Skye, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Skye,” he said, going all pompous. “I can tell that something is wrong right now.”

“Nothing’s…”

“It’s so wrong I’m actually going to press this issue," he said with a serious and important tone. "What is it?”

Sighing, she slipped him off of her and looked down. “I just feel it’s inappropriate to be doing that…”

Jack paused and just pointed to the pair across from them. Haida was still fussing with Retsuko’s ear, but she gently tapped him to make him stop it and looked across the table to the swift fox present. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Jack added, bringing the picture up again and pointing at it. “What’s wrong with this?”

Skye sighed, grabbing some more sweet potato fries, dunking them into a ton of blue cheese sauce, and eating them down to try and calm herself. Taking a long breath in through her mouth and out of her nose, she looked at the group. “You remember that presentation, right?”

Three sets of nods were returned.

“Well, Jack and I met when I did some work for him not too long ago. We became friends when I saw his meddler of a boss trying to mess up his work and we got our own back and, after that, we sort of joked our way into a date. We’re quite different, into different things, and part of this date was to see if… -well you know, there was anything more between us.”

“You know, I sort of thought the same thing,” Jack agreed. “ _ But… _ I found a very suitable place as your emotional support bunny…” He was broken off by a chuckle from the other two, but stayed firm. “I was led to believe that this was an exciting opportunity we both happened to like, me especially as it means I don’t have to do anything. I most certainly saw a future in it, and I do believe you did too.”

“Well, then I learned that the entirety of my attraction to you was based off of a misfiring hunting instinct,” Skye pointed out, a slightly harsh tone to her words. “Now, I’m not saying that it’ll make me literally eat you up, or it’ll make me a prime target for these nighthowler thieves, but… -But I don’t really feel that that’s the kind of thing you can really build a relationship out of.” She sighed, looking down. “I mean, this was a spur-of-the-moment thing already, and the only thing we found we did well together was you being a good cuddle-toy…”

“Ahem,” Jack said indignantly. "Emotional support bunny."

“Yeah,” she said, “which doesn’t really count any more, and that leaves nothing.” Her ears drooped down a little. “You’re a good friend Jack, but I’m just not sure you and I…”

“You know,” Haida butted in. “Even if that dumb ‘used to be a hunting instinct thing’ is true, who cares?”

“Yeah,” Retsuko added. “So what if it used to be like that? It isn’t anymore, is it?”

Looking up at them, Skye remained unconvinced. “It just feels a bit…”

“A bit off?” Haida asked.

“Yeah.”

“Uh-huh,” the hyena replied, nodding a little. “I know that feeling.”

Pausing, Skye looked between the two. “You mean, you realised it was the same thing with you and Retsuko?”

“No, not that,” he began, before slamming to a halt, his eyes going wide. “Huh… What if it is?” he asked, a worried tone in his voice.

“Haida?” Retsuko asked worried, before looking over at Skye, her face wincing up angrily. “Did you just break my boyfriend!?”

A few coughs from the hyena cleared the notion from the air, while a few shakes of his head cleared the idea from his mind. “Never mind,” he told himself, before looking up at Skye. “How much do you know about us hyenas?”

“Not much,” Skye replied honestly. “I'm not familiar with the species.”

“Right,” Haida began. “The thing about us spotted hyenas is that we’re really matriarchal, and I mean  _ really _ . That means the females tend to be the ones going out, getting the big jobs, earning the money. They also woo and do the romantic stuff with the boys, who do the domestic stuff. Now, most of us and most of my family is fine by that, fair is fair and  _ big sister _ gets the money for a life changing study opportunity rather than me getting it for an ‘unneeded cosmetic dental procedure’... yadda yadda I’m totally not salty,” he said, resting his chin on his paw, his lips going up and part covering his three big snaggle teeth. There was an awkward silence, Jack and Skye glancing at each other before Haida waved it off and carried on. “So, most boys in the family were fine with that but, from early on, I wasn’t. I wanted to be the big man! Going out there, earning the money and being the man of the house! It was tough though, pushing against this idea you could just give up and settle, and as I tried to move away from that I sometimes overreacted.” He paused, looking down at Retsuko sadly; the red panda looking up at him with a newfound curiosity, learning a whole side she didn’t realise existed. “Now, I love things like harder music and all that but when starting at my job I began meeting friends and hanging out with them, trading gossip, and then I realised I was doing it with a group of girls.”

“What’s the matter with that?” Skye asked.

“Because the whole sharing gossip thing is what us boy hyenas usually do… I mean, when I was a little cub my dad would be taking me out to shop, meet another father hyena he knew, and then they’d start talking! Wham! Whole morning, gone!”

“Sounds like my mother,” Retsuko said, shivering quite a bit at her mention.

“And mine,” Skye agreed.

Jack groaned. "I'm having a flashback!"

“Yeah,” Haida replied, waving a paw up. “Us boy hyenas tend to be more like other species’ females, so getting into a gossip group like that was natural, but it went against what I wanted. It felt off.” He paused, laughing a little, before scratching the back of his head. “Heh… So, after I realised I was regressing, I originally thought that I’d cut all contact with that stuff. But then I thought, ‘who cares!’ Just do what you enjoy. I can be a big strong man, rock out when I want, and chat with a bunch of girls about feelings and gossip. So I returned to that group, and that’s how I became a great friend with Fenneko, and with Retsuko here.”

Skye nodded back, smiling before lightly slapping her head. “Thanks,” she chuckled, shaking it slightly. “You know, that does sort of make me feel better there.”

“Yeah,” Retusko agreed, smiling. “Just do what makes you feel happy, what you feel okay doing.”

“Four hours,” Jack moaned.

There was an awkward silence as everyone turned to him.

“That was her longest record for a ‘quick chat’. Booorrrriiinnggggg…” He made an exaggerated yawn, before looking up at Skye, wiggling in her lap.

Skye looked at him, then at the others, and paused. “Still,” she said slowly, “all we really have is the fact that I like petting him, and he likes being petted. That doesn’t really feel like enough for this kind of thing, does it?”

“Trust me,” Retsuko butted in. “I’ve had experience, and having someone who doesn’t do the whole physical affection thing gets really irritating really quickly.”

“Huh…” Haida stuttered, looking down at her. “Is this about Whatsisface? -The not rich one.”

“You mean Resasuke? Yeah…”

Haida couldn’t help but smile slightly, his fists clenching and shaking a little with a pure unadulterated feeling of success. Retusko, meanwhile, looked up at Skye. “He was a nice guy as a person, we probably had a lot in common, but I made the mistake of pushing it too hard… That and he was pretty much on another planet the whole time. I ended up having to take a break from relationships for a while. As for Haida and me, well we’ve known each other for years, but it’s only now that we’ve started learning more about each other…”

“So you’re saying we should give it a chance, as we’ve got a nice thing going already?” Skye filled in, latching on.

“Yeah,” Retsuko agreed. “Just be honest with each other, and maybe try not to take it so seriously at first. You two both have a thing going on that you enjoy. It might work out, it might not, but if it doesn’t, is that really a bad thing? I had another relationship where a guy loved me, treated me very well, but it just didn’t work out. I was sad, yes, but for what it’s worth, I had a good time.”

Skye nodded and paused, looking down at Jack. There was certainly an urge to pet him, just a little.

Or maybe a lot...

She smiled and patted him, watching as he lounged down into her lap, even putting his feet up on the table. In retaliation her tail came around and over, and her paw dug down beneath his shirt, stroking around his belly fur and earning a good deal of chittering in response. “This is the life,” he moaned, grabbing the last of Skye’s fries and chewing on them.

She should have been mad, yet she wasn’t. It felt good to have a warm, furry, purry mass on her lap. “Maybe we can keep trying this out,” she said, smiling. That sounded good.

Jack nodded. “Sounds good.”

“What?” she smirked. “You being an emotional support bunny?”

“Ahem,” he replied, before a deep scratch of hers sent one of his feet drumming into the air. He looked back at her, now extra serious. “I think you’ll happen to find that I’m  _ your  _ emotional support bunny.”

“Fine by me,” she replied, sighing. “You know, we’re quite different, aren’t we? But I’ve never wanted anyone to look after me, or anyone who I can look after, but I do find I quite enjoy this arrangement, and I happen to think you’re probably the same. So, maybe, we are a good fit for each other?”

Jack nodded in agreement. “What you said.”

“Yeah,” she replied, before looking up to the others. “Sorry for going all dumb and stupid there.”

“No worries,” Haida replied.

“None at all,” Retsuko added, still sitting in his lap but brushing away his paw, wanting a break from his TLC.

“Thanks,” Skye replied, shaking her head, realising how dumb she’d been. “I mean, I couldn’t let myself down if I’d done a Nick to all you lot.”

Haida blinked a few times. “Heh…”

“Nick, as in Nick Wilde?” Retsuko asked.

Skye nodded, a whole host of distasteful memories returning. “He seems to have changed,” she clarified, “but when I first met him he was this dumb melodramatic paranoid idiot who figured everyone in the entire world was out to get all of foxkind because of a boo-boo or something he’d had, and that there was no point in trying to be anything. Instead, you should just prove them right by being sneaky and miserable and just moping about in your self-made misery, all while trying to bring others into the fold.” She paused, glancing over at Jack’s drink and having a little sip, knowing it wouldn’t push her over the limit. “To the point where he’d often explain to me why my good grades and good chances and all that were a backstabbing waiting to happen, and that I and every other fox in the city should just give up.”

“Hmmm,” Haida noted. “Well, you weren’t trying to knock us down, were you?”

“Yeah,” Retsuko added. “You just weren’t sure about your relationship.”

“You’re just a mammal trying to find their place in the world,” Haida said, gesturing around. “I think we all are. This is what this thing is all about, after all.”

For some reason, his words really resonated with her. They made her feel better and more confident that things would be good. Skye nodded and smiled. “Thanks for talking me through that. I should have been able to work it out myself, but here we are. Me, with a bunny that I must confess I’m quite fond of, having a fun time with two new friends.”

“F-friends?” Retsuko asked.

“Yeah,” Skye said, smiling. “Isn’t that right Jack?”

…

“Jack?” she said, pausing her petting and nudging him.

“Uh… -Yes Skye?”

“Don’t you think they’re friends?”

“I don’t see why not?” Jack said. “I mean, we talk, we enjoy each other. Sounds like friends.” He shrugged. “I think we feel like friends!”

Haida couldn’t help but nod, and then smile. “Maybe we could meet up again like this,” he said, before his eyes widened. “We could do double dates.”

“Yeah!” Skye agreed, Retsuko joining in.

Jack gave a smug look over at Haida and nodded. “You could plan the dates and such.”

They hyena nodded firmly. “They are going to be fantastic and romantic!”

Retsuko looked between them all happily. “This sounds amazing!”

“It sounds magnificent!” Jack hammed up. “Spectacular and glorious!”

“Heh, calm it down there Mr Actor,” Haida joked, bringing a proud chuckle from the bunny.

“I am an actor, Mr…”

“Accountant.”

“Accountant,” Retsuko added.

“Mechanic,” Skye finished off.

“So, tell me,” Retsuko asked, leaning forwards curiously and with a gleam in her eyes. “What are the details behind your first meeting and, more importantly, how did you deal with your bad boss?”

“Yeah,” Haida said, leaning forwards. “We’re thinking about leaving our one, and some of your ideas might be too good to pass up.”

Jack looked at them both. “I’ll only tell you my bad boss stories if you share yours.”

The hyena and red panda looked at each other, then back at him. “We might be here a while,” they said in perfect unison, leaving Jack wide eyed and blinking at the display.

“...That was amazing! Did you rehearse that?”

Retsuko was taken aback, and Haida broke down into a pair of cackles. “I wasn’t expecting that reaction,” he said.

“Why, what were you expecting?” Skye asked.

“Another story,” he said. “It might take a while.”

Jack shrugged, feeling happy where he was, and looking up he was pretty sure Skye felt the same way. “We’ve got all night,” she said, settling down to pet her bunny.

All night they did have.

Stories were shared and laughter exchanged and, by the end of it, phone numbers were written down. The two couples departed, knowing they’d meet again, with Skye racing off in her car with Jack sitting by her side.

“I enjoyed that,” he said.

“I…” she began, before blinking as a sudden shock rattled through her mind. Smiling, she turned to face Jack. “I’ve just realised you dumped all date planning activities onto Haida,” she pointed out.

He shrugged. “What? He enjoys it?”

“And you don’t?” she teased.

“A little,” he defended. “But you don’t punch a gift giving horse in the mouth, do you?”

“True that, though I’ll have to offer to share the load with him” she replied, as she turned off into one of the windy back roads that went through the dune areas. Threading the gears, her feet dancing on the pedals, she looked to her side and noticed that Jack was enjoying this. “Hey, you like going fast?”

“I feel the need, the need for speed!” he said dramatically, as his body poised itself up.

“Now I know where that one came from, and I now know there’s more things in common between us,” she said, grinning. “How about we do a little detour, and have some fun?”

Giving her a wink, he shook his paw, pretended to spray all over his muzzle, and held his paw up in a fist. “WITNESS US!”

“WITNESS US!!!!” Skye shouted in response, as her foot went down at they raced off into the distance.

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**AN: There’s a difference between taking an existing character and exploring/ developing them with your own ideas (similar to what I did with Haida here), and doing it to a blank slate. At this stage, Jack and Skye, Skye especially, are like that, so when writing this oneshot I was still trying to get a feel for the characters. By and large, Jack is a mammal happy to take the path of least resistance, bar when his passions are involved. Skye, though… I had her penned as a very independent and self-reliant character previously, and there needed to be a way of making her bond with Jack. They are wildly different, and I don’t want to do the ‘head over heels’ approach I’ve seen done elsewhere. As Haida said, in what I think is the best description of the themes of season 1 of this series, she’s a character trying to find her place in the world.**

**But she’s got her bunny to cuddle, and two new friends, to help her with that.**

**.**

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Far away, at a non-descript house, a car pulled up. The figure walking up to it carefully looked over his shoulders, one of his paws brushing past his holstered gun. Recent updates about their most important business had been marred by both good fortune and unfortunate setbacks.

The whole thing was about as slippery and fidgety as a certain weasel he’d dealt with in the past. Sadly, action towards their goal had to be far more covert, far more careful.

The city would naturally be on alert.

Aware of what was going on.

Flicking a light on, he looked up to see his partner in crime. “I’m sure you’ve heard the update.”

The white figure in front of him nodded, before yelling out. “I HAVE, I HAVE, IT’S HAPPENING!!!!!”

Bracing from Eliot Fanghanel’s shout, Chief Ramic nodded back, before yelling out too. “THE CITY WILL BE GRACED BY WILDEHOPPS!!! TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!”

They were both cut off by a slamming door from the side, as a very tired Chloe Fanghanel walked in. “Guys… It’s…” she began, checking the time on her phone. “Tomorrow. Go to bed.”

“But don’t you see pumpkin?” her mate urged. “We have confirmation that Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps are staying the night in the former’s flat. This is a major step forwards and…”

-PRONG…

The white wolf wobbled a bit, before collapsing into his wife’s arms, the thylacine removing her fork from him and dragging him away. She gave a death glare to Chief Ramic, holding the utensil up and waving it for him to see, before closing the door. He took that as his cue to leave. Still, he was content. Why else would Nick and Judy be in the same place at the same time?

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…

“Carrot’s,” he whined. “It’s… -tomorrow. We need to get you home.”

“Just one last roll of recordings,” she moaned, her eyes skipping over the sped up jam cam pictures, watching and waiting for anything that might be a clue.

“You know fluff,” Nick moaned, sleepily standing by her. “This is why I think taking your work home with you is a slippery slope.”

“I’d then stay in the precinct.”

“Where Bogo could tell you to go home, and your work can’t follow,” Nick lectured. He reached down, gently touching Judy to move her on, only for her to shake her shoulder to throw him off.

“Nuuuhhhh…”

…

Rolling his eyes, Nick looked at her. Her ears had lost all structural integrity, almost hanging off the back of her head, while her tired eyes were wavering and dull. “Do you know that naughty Carrots’s who don’t want to go to bed get no bedtime stories?”

“But it’s important,” she moaned, pointing at the screen. “Gotta find the nighthowler thief. Make things right. Fix it all…”

“You’ll miss anything actually useful at this rate,” he pointed out.

“No I won’t,” she moaned, before pressing the pause button. “Look, I saw that bat.”

“Right, and…” he began in response, only to pause. Coming in closer, his eyes widened, seeing a little thing above the top of the store. “Well I never. Serves me right to underestimate the bunninator. Then again, I am a dumb fox.”

“And I’m a sly bunny…” she wearily boasted, trying to give him a playful punch on the shoulder but only producing a light touch.

“Ow, that’s fox abuse,” Nick replied back, as he recorded the timestamp on a piece of paper. “But now that you’ve found that we can get you back…” He trailed off as he saw Judy slumped in the seat, fast asleep and with her mouth agape. There was absolutely no way he could get her back to her place. Thankfully she was in her casual wear, having changed out of her duty gear when she got here, so he could put her to sleep in that… -And totally not picture her in her fox onesie instead, -stop that brain! Gently picking her up, he carried her into his tiny excuse for a spare bedroom, which had a bed she could sleep quite happily on. Down she went, covers over her, as Nick gave her a goodnight kiss on the forehead and headed off to rest as well.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: Urghhh. This chapter was a pain. I ended up rewriting it from the ground up (though saving the general outline, while copying and pasting some scenes). Originally it would flick between both of their viewpoints, while I also attempted to fit in my new ideas for Jack’s character (the whole scatterbrained/ spaced out idea when not focussed). In the end, I felt it had no spark so I redid it, entirely from Skye’s perspective (which worked well as she hasn't had any character building POV parts yet). I also had Jack specifically drop his ‘acting romantic’ for ‘acting casual’ thing much earlier.
> 
> Part of the problem is that I want two distinct characters who are both different from Nick and Judy, but who can mesh together well with them when the time calls for it.
> 
> Anyhow, hope you enjoyed the first part of a bunnyfox date in the series. Like, subscribe and comment, and see you next time.


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